[[http://www.fanfiction.net/ FanFiction.net]] is the [[NotableFanfictionArchives biggest archive for FanFic]] ''anywhere'', offering thousands upon thousands of stories, with a total length somewhere in the range of fifteen to twenty ''billion'' words. As of June 2012, the number of Fanfiction.net user accounts created exceeded 4 million.

Fanfiction.net is free and moderately user-friendly. Most members have a love-hate relationship with it - while there are some authors who post there who are ''exceptionally'' talented, there are [[SturgeonsLaw many more authors who post there who... aren't]].

Launched on Thursday, October 15, 1998 by webmaster Xing Li, it soon snowballed into something incredible. Its secret to success is its limited moderation and fully-automated system, meaning posting is very quick and easy and can be done by anyone. Pretty much the ultimate expression of SturgeonsLaw, the site has gotten an exaggerated but not entirely unfounded reputation for representing a lot of the worst excesses of fanfiction.

FF.Net has had such a strong influence on the fan community that it was almost solely responsible for making the ScriptFic obsolete - it banned almost all fics written in this form. This was mostly due to quality concerns over people being extremely lazy in their writing from the format. It has also banned RealPersonFic due to the potential for libel suits, forcing the RPF communities elsewhere, such as to Website/{{LiveJournal}}.

Since 2002, it has banned MA and NC-17-rated material and opened up the site to minors (13 year olds). [=LiveJournal=] became a haven where those against the vulgarity-ban fled, although [=AdultFanFiction=].net was also born to provide a place to go. See [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FanFiction.Net The Other Wiki]] for details.

There is still a 'Mature' rating category, the tag of which still needs to be manually selected to view adult fics. For a number of years, writers insistent on posting MA and NC-17 material on FF.net despite the ban put their {{Lemon}} and {{Lime}} there instead. As enforcement was weak at best, ignorance and/or deliberate disregard of the TOS/Guidelines became almost an unspoken norm.

On June 2012, the admins ramped up their enforcement of TOS/guidelines. This included responding to reports of plagiarism, copyrighted material, non-stories, MA material incorrectly rated as M and resulted in the removal and suspension of thousands of stories/accounts which were allegedly in violation of the rules.

In response to the enforcement action, an estimated around 40,000 users migrated the site in favor of Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn, Website/FicWad, Yourfanfiction.com and other fanfic-hosting sites. Key reasons for the outcry were complaints that there was no notice to change the "offending" material. (It should be noted however, that as stated the [[http://www.fanfiction.net/tos/ Terms of Service agreement]] for Fanfiction.net, "FanFiction.Net reserves the right to remove Content and User Submissions without prior notice.")

Other reasons for protest include the admins providing vague and unclear reasons for removal of stories, or sometimes no reason given at all. There were also a small number of cases of wrongful removal of stories which were compliant with the guidelines. Some authors who appealed the removal reported that these stories were reinstated with reviews intact on successful appeal. If the author offers to change the content of their stories so that it doesn't match the original scripts they're based on they may also be able to avoid having them taken down. The guidelines however have essentially made {{Film Fic}}s no longer allowed, while {{Twice Told Tale}}s are risky at best.

One interesting aspect of the site is that it simply ''is'' the reason that the MostFanficWritersAreGirls trope exists. While there has always been a decent female representation within fanfiction, this site really brought it to prominence. The vast majority of the members are, indeed, female and this has actually lead to sort of an inverse of the {{GIRL}} trope being used on the forums. Certainly, the male members using it as a social network tend to make a big deal out of their gender. The site is also popular as a social network, with a majority of the members signing up specifically for the forums. Much of the problem with the general quality comes from people that write stories without really caring due to either a sense of obligation or to get their name out there. Of course, this doesn't mean that there aren't many people who do want constructive feedback on their actual writing, but due to the very optimistic outlook of most members, it's not really the best place for it.

The site tends to attract quite a bit of SnarkBait, but like any other large community, that's just to be expected.

The nickname "Pit of Voles" comes from a Google-bombing campaign that succeeded for a while in making [=FanFiction.net=] the number 1 Google search result for that phrase. The aforementioned [=AdultFanFiction=].net is known as the Uber-Pit. Currently, [=FanFiction.net=] is the fifth result for this phrase, with the Urban Dictionary definitions linking to [=FanFiction.net=] as first and second. Third? This article.

It also has a sister site, [[http://www.fictionpress.com/ FictionPress]]. It hosts original fiction instead of fanfiction.

As of November 24th, 2014, the following 33 fandoms had at least 30,000 submissions on [=FanFiction.net=] [[note]] This disregards crossovers and misplaced fanfiction, which is hard to count.[[/note]] (Story-count on the site has been rounded to approximate numbers as of late.)

It's been noted that the more popular fandoms are split between multiple media - this can make them difficult to sort and count. The site also has a Crossovers section, so eloquently designed that you can find the people who think it's a good idea to cross HarryPotter with LeaveItToBeaver within three clicks. [[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer Yes, one such story does exist]]

!!Franchises and shared universes with over 25,000 stories combined* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' actually breaks in at 8th with over 76,000 stories if taken as a collective instead of individual games. Every game even has its own crossover section.* The ''Franchise/StargateVerse'' is over 46,000 when including Series/StargateAtlantis and Series/StargateUniverse, and the ''single'' story written for ''WesternAnimation/StargateInfinity''.* The ''Franchise/{{X-Men}}'' franchise as a whole has well over 44,000 stories, split between comics, movies and cartoons.* ''Franchise/StarWars'' also has several smaller sections dedicated to various aspects of the ''StarWarsExpandedUniverse'', which combine for 4,000 more stories over the 36,000+ of the movie series itself, for a total of 40,000+* The ''Franchise/StarTrek'' franchise has more than 36,000 hits, but it's spread between several shows and a film.* ''TheNickVerse'' is close to 30,000 stories, with ''{{iCarly}}'' and ''{{Victorious}}'' accounting for 26,000 of those.* The ''[[Franchise/{{DCLAU}} Disney Channel Live Action Universe]]'' combines for over 26,000, with 12,000 coming from ''HannahMontana'' (though much is the fandom is MileyCyrus/ NickJonas that has nothing to do with the show), with ''AustinAndAlly'', ''WizardsOfWaverlyPlace'', ''TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody'' and ''ShakeItUp'' providing several thousand stories each.* The ''Franchise/{{Whoniverse}}'' has over 73,000 stories as a whole - and this total '''doesn't''' take into account crossovers. Even if crossovers with [[Series/{{Torchwood}} its]] [[Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures own]] [[Series/{{K9}} spinoffs]] are excluded, ''Series/DoctorWho'' still has the most crossovers among any TV show.

An interesting piece of trivia while most of the stories are in English, Screenplays section is predominantly Indonesian with nearly 22,000 of the 23,000+ stories in the language.

For a more complete list of individual fanfics that can be found on Fanfiction.net, go [[Fanfic/FanFics here]]. Note that stories listed there are not necessarily exclusive to FFN, and some may also be mirrored on other fanfiction sites.